Rui avoided kick as he fired of three strikes at Sarron Malcolm, one of the eleven he was scheduled to fight.
Sarron grimaced as he stepped back, trying to open up some distance between them. But Rui was not merciful enough to allow that to happen. Rui dashed forward with Parallel Walk and Balanced Direction before;
Rui successfully burrows Flowing Canon into Sarron's solar plexus. The sheer impact was too powerful. The boy crumbled like a house of cards, but Rui was not done.
A single kick to the jaw knocked him out on the way down. Rui wanted to ensure he wouldn't get up.
The onlookers sighed. Rui was brutal, there was a reason he had gone undefeated.
"Winner; Apprentice Rui Quarrier!" The supervisor declared.
He walked off the stage, unperturbed.
"Good fight." Kane complimented.
"Thanks." Rui replied. "I finished it especially quickly because I didn't want to miss the next one."
He glanced at the preliminary schedule on the notice board.
[Fae Dullahan vs Kane]
This was something Rui did not dare miss. They were both close friends of his, and even without that, they were top contenders of the Martial Academy. Rui would pay Martial credits to watch this fight.
It's not that the two of them had never fought. If one were to include verbal spats, these two fought every single day. About all kinds of things too. If there was something that could be argued about, there was at the very least a fifty-percent chance Fae and Kane would fight over it.
But as far as physical fights went, these two hadn't fought in a while. They had both grown stronger ever since then, having learnt new powerful techniques.
But if he had to choose who was stronger...
('...It would have to be Kane.') Rui sighed.
It wasn't a matter of overall prowess at all. It wasn't that Kane operated on a higher level of combat prowess.
It was a matter of compatibility. Kane had a stylistic compatibility advantage against Fae, this would tilt the battle in his favour.
Unless Kane somehow blundered or Fae pulled a brilliant tactic, there was very little chance Kane would lose.
They'd reached. Fae, Milliana and Dalen were already waiting for them.
The atmosphere was tense, especially because these two irked each other to no end on a regular basis.
Yet this time, they exchanged no words, merely exchanging stares.
"Hey guys..." Rui tried breaking the stiff atmosphere. "Looking forward to a great fight. No hard feelings regardless of who wins."
The two of them didn't respond, merely making their way to the ring.
"Do you think they'll be fine?" Rui muttered.
"They should be." Dalen stated, earning a nod from Milliana.
Up on the ring, the two of them took their positions.
The atmosphere grew taut.
"Take your stance." The supervisor instructed.
Fae reverted to her usual stance, tucking her right palm upside-down at her waist while her left palm pointed straight at Kane. "I'm intend to win."
Kane snorted, as he lightly hopped between his feet. "Be my guest."
"Begin!" The supervisor commenced the fight.
Fae raced forward as she threw a palm attack right onto him.
And where Kane should have been, there was but naught.
Kane sauntered out of all perception, having activated the Void Step technique.
Fae stayed stationary, waiting.
Her body jerked at a strike from behind her landed on her. She swiftly turned, launching swift palm attack.
Despite her sacrificing power to obtain speed, she had missed. But this was not outside her expectations.
Rui had observed the fight with Primordial Instinct and Seismic Mapping. Kane was currently circling around her in order to maintain the stealth given to him by the Void Step technique.
He landed a combo before evading her attack.
And continued some more.
This unfolded from start to finish. Kane abused his advantage and continued pummeling Fae up. She slowly but surely built up more and more damage as the fight went on. Fae's defense was quite solid and Kane's offense was unremarkable. Even if he did possess an advantage, he certainly would not be able to end the fight quickly, he was an evasive maneuverer at his core, his offense would never be special.
Not every fight was flashy.
Not every fight was suspenseful.
And most certainly, not every fight was unpredictable.
Sometimes, there were just predictable fight.
Sometimes, there simply were inevitable outcomes.
This fight, Rui had come to realize, was probably going to be one of them.
Fae was just too incompatible with the Void Step technique. Her techniques and her Martial Art were not conducive to it, and it showed.
In the end, she grew more and more desperate, taking a gamble.
She stood at the very corner of the ring, cutting out any access to attacks from behind or even from her side. While waiting for an attack to land on her.
Her idea was to land a strike as soon as she felt Kane's attack.
Rui shook his head. It may have seemed like a good idea, but it simple wasn't. The risk was far, far too high. Kane's offense was not special, but it wasn't weak either, he had two mid-grade striking offensive techniques that amplified the power of his regular strikes and with the Void Step technique, he could easily build up momentum. She would fall off before she could land a single strike.
Even if she had the defensive prowess of Dalen, she would still not be able to land a strike on him probably. His evasiveness was too good, and he could easily land strikes while avoid strikes unperturbed.
And, he was invisible. To Fae, atleast.
That strategy was too risky even for Rui, who could actually sense his position vaguely. He would merely be trading out one disadvantage for another.
The fundamental issue was not solved.
Fae was firmly ringed out.
And the battle ended.